Computer systems are now displaying a greater variety of graphics, video and other forms of data concurrently. However, many computer systems do not have sufficient bandwidth resources to update and display all these types of data on a display at the same time.
Some computer systems solve this problem by increasing the bandwidth of the system bus to handle all of these forms, types and amount of data. As a result, as users request more types of information such as in multimedia applications, the system bus has become more clogged with information other than information directly utilized and needed by the main processor.
Multi-bus systems are known to handle the large amounts of information being utilized. However, communication between buses and devices on different buses is difficult. Typically, a bus bridge may be used such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,935,894 with a FIFO located in the bus bridge for storing messages. Such bus bridges or bus interfaces typically include buffers for storing data or messages being sent between buses.